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greening it up – mon 13 aug 07

Submitted by sproutingforth on Mon, 2007-08-13 11:24

What’s blocking CT’s drains? 43% of the 6400 sewer blockages a month are because people dump foreign objects - like animal carcasses, engine parts and even broken furniture - into sewers. Other culprits include: build-up of fat from kitchen sinks, building material and roots growing into sewers. [IOL]

SA Sasol plant – top culprit of carbon emissions. Sasol may have earned green kudos with a project to convert the greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, into harmless nitrogen and oxygen [greening it up], but their plant in Secunda is cited as the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and South Africa the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emission in Africa. [allafrica]

It’s a balancing act. In its defence, the department of environmental affairs advocates that while trying to grow the economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is ‘a balancing act’. The department went on to defend the country’s continued use of coal-generated energy, and in answer to whether or not there would be ever-greater emissions of greenhouse gases by South Africa over the next decade, they replied: "Yes, certainly yes, the possibility exists." [IOL]

Going organic - not just for the wealthy. Riebeek Kasteel, along with the rest of the Riebeek Valley, has undergone a rebranding as the olive capital of the Western Cape, and numerous magazine articles have boosted the number of visitors on weekends. All of this has done little, if anything, to reduce the extreme poverty of the onderdorp. But a project in a patch of grass next to what used to be Riebeek Kasteel’s railway station is now a community garden that inspires.[carbonsmart]